Was is currently the best eReader that isn’t forcing you into an ecosystem (like Kindle)?
Preferably smaller screen size and no colour display.
I just got a Kobo Clara Colour and it was painless to get KoReader working on it. It runs well, is very responsive, and the battery life is great. It is not as powerful as some other options but for the price it is quite nice. The black and white version is about $30 cheaper here, so it is a fairly good value proposition.
Kobo Clara BW and PocketBook Verse Pro have the same prize at my place. What are the pros for Kobo, as I appreciate the buttons of the PB?
Well, I saw this just today:
https://liliputing.com/crowdfunding-begins-for-open-book-touch-an-open-source-ereader/
Nice. For sure not competitive in all specs but I hope it will be successful. Also to put some pressure on other brands, especially regarding replacing parts!
Came here to say exactly this! What perfect timing for this question lol, the Open Book Touch is finally available. Now if only I could afford one
Xteink makes good tiny readers that have opensource firmwares. The new model will have a backlight and touchscreen. For larger e-ink, check out Boox. They run android and one of the few with gpu acceleration for the eink.
I also have an X4 that I’ve been liking a lot. There’s a few different custom firmwares to pick from, and the experience has been very nice. Simple, truly pocket sized, and sort of an “as many features as you like” situation with picking between the firmware options.
I also own a bigger Boox and phone sized Hisense Touch. They are both well made devices, and offer a very pleasant reading experience, but the simplicity of the ESP32 based X4 makes it feel more like a book. All the layers of android on top of the hardware on the other two really take away from the experience.
If there was an android rom specifically for liberating e readers that would be awesome.
The Hisense is also a hi-fi audio device so I keep it around for listening to my audio collection in lieu of owning a record player.
I’m interested in the Commodore Callback and could really see myself enjoying a modernized flip phone and the X4 as my daily EDC devices.
I’ve really enjoyed the x4 with crosspoint loaded onto it.
If you pick one up, grab a developer version as it makes it slightly easier to flash the custom firmware (takes 1-2 minutes using a web installer)
Kobo Libra Colour. It’s amazing!
Plus they partnered with ifxit so all parts of your ereader can be replaced if there’s an issue.
Replacing parts is a huge PLUS!
Paired with Calibre, KoReader, and Anna’s Archive you have a DRM free and open source environment. It’s so nice knowing I actually own all of my library.
You can connect it to Libby and your library as well!
I have a Boox Onyx Go Color Gen II and I love it. Uses Android.
Boox Palma for a smartphone shaped reader, has b&w and color versions.
Gotten myself both a large-screen Kobo Elipsa 2E, which does wonders with KOReader. Haven’t used the pen much though, since that’s not what I got the device for.
Also got myself an Xteink X4 and loaded it with the crosspoint firmware, which does amazingly for some casual reading on the go.
The Xteink x4 has some aftermarket firmware available. I’ve loaded mine up with a bunch of epubs. It works well.
Writing this on a BigMe S7. Great e-reader with Cantook, but obviously can do more than just ebooks. Came with a pen that I never use, but it’s my ebooks, podcasts, maps.
Mine is color, but I’m pretty sure you can get a b&w version. I had an old Boox Poke and hated the interface, but I have two BigMe devices and like them both.
That, or an old Hisense A5 are my readers of choice.
